As Indonesia prepares to invade the tiny nation of East Timor, five Australian based journalists go missing. Four weeks later, veteran foreign correspondent Roger East is lured to East Timor by the young and charismatic José Ramos-Horta to tell the story of his country and investigate the fate of the missing men. As East's determination to uncover the truth grows, the threat of invasion intensifie

The story is seen through the eyes of veteran journalist Roger East. Introduced as a once-fearless foreign correspondent now working in PR in Darwin, East is drawn to East Timor by Jose Ramos-Horta, of the Revolutionary Front for an Independent East Timor; then the fledgling republic's charismatic young secretary of foreign affairs. Initially refusing to become involved, East changes his tune after Horta shows him photos of five Australian TV reporters missing in the border town of Balibo.

At this point, the film winds back a month. Vignettes show Greg Shackleton, Gary Cunningham, Malcolm Rennie, Brian Peters and Tony Stewart, all under 30, saying goodbye to loved ones and setting out on their assignments.

Parallel action follows with the Balibo Five tracked from East Timor's capital to their terrifying end after filming the Indonesian advance, and East and Horta retracing their steps through by now extremely dangerous territory. Shackleton's last surviving report is recreated: sitting in a village, he says its inhabitants don't know if they will be alive tomorrow and have asked him why no one in Australia or anywhere else will help.

Drawing attention to the techniques of news gathering and delivery in 1975, the film raises the idea of what might have happened had the Balibo Five not been cut off from communicating with the world and slowed by heavy 16mm film equipment.

Bookended by contemporary scenes of a fictional Timorese woman remembering East and life under Indonesian occupation, the film closes with a tribute to the nation's rebirth in 1999 and the thousands of lives lost in the struggle for independence